Stafford legend Roly Tonge wrote off football club's £200k debt before he died

The club has revealed that Roly Tonge, who sat on the club's board for 33 years, had written off the six-figure loan to the club prior to his death last year.

But despite the generous gift the club is in a dire financial position and has announced it will no longer accept loans from directors, from which it has largely lived off in recent years.

Chairman John Bromley said the decision means it is more important than ever to get as many fans through the gate as possible to help boost the coffers.

Despite the warning, Mr Bromley insisted it is not 'all doom and gloom' for the non-league outfit, but said it was crucial more fans come and watch the club. He pleaded with people in Stafford to stick by the side if they want it to have a long-term future.

The Boro chairman said there were no plans to sell the club's Marston Road ground to raise funds.

He said: "It is hard. Only three out of 15 games have been at home on a Saturday. Most have been on a Tuesday night and it is hard to get people in then.

"We are running the place on more of a business level and are saving money all the time but we need 500 or 600 through the gate to break even. At the moment the average is around 400.

"This year the aim is to consolidate in this league - to stay up - then aim for the top six next year. We need the support. We want people who are going to support the team all the time."

He added: "What I can do I will do but we can't go on forever as it is. We are doing better than last year but it takes time.

"We have always got assets. We own the ground which is worth a phenomenal amount of money but we don't want to sell the ground."

The chairman said the gift from Mr Tonge before his death showed how much he loved the club.

He added: "He obviously loved the club otherwise he wouldn't have donated that to us. What he did for the club was fantastic."